CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Recent protests against the police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown have created a conundrum for the nation’s black fraternities and sororities: to remain relevant in the black community they need to be involved, but protect their reputations if demonstrations go awry.

The competing pressures were exemplified last weekend when black Greek members and alumni participated in lay down protests across the country and two sororities asked their members not to wear their letters during the demonstrations so as not to embarrass them.

Many of the nine historically Black Greek organizations — known collectively as “The Divine Nine” — were born out of the nation’s racial conflict. Founded on college campuses in the early 1900s when black students faced racial prejudice and exclusion that barred them from already existing fraternities and sororities, a century later they are wrestling with their role in the most recent protests.

There was a time when the black Greek organizations were in the forefront of the civil rights struggles, but those days have faded into memory, said Gregory Parks, an assistant professor at the Wake Forest University School of Law and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

“These organizations, whether you’re talking about the fraternities or sororities, do indeed have a direct or indirect impact on African-Americans’ quest for social equality throughout the 20th century,” Parks said. But recently “these organizations’ voices have been absent in assertive fashion around racial justice and social equality.”